Travel shorts

Something for the weekend

• A leader and a related piece in this week's Economist look at the ways online firms calculate how much they can charge different customers. This may be of particular interest to travellers in the week where Orbitz has been reported as highlighting different hotels to its users depending on whether their computer is a Mac or a PC. (Mac-users have historically chosen pricier hotels, apparently, so that's what Orbitz recommends to them.) We suggest that you may want to reassess your web-surfing methods in order to ensure you get the best deals.

• The complicated question of when is the best time to buy airline tickets vexes most flyers at some point. According to the Wall Street Journal, tickets for international flights should be bought about two to three months before the travel date. Earlier than that, fares can be higher, and they'll rise again in the weeks before departure. But inbetween there is a sweet spot where travellers can usually find the best deals. (The advice is different for domestic flights.) The WSJ's findings tie in with some similar research that we commented on a couple of years ago, which gave eight weeks before departure as the best time to buy.

• Bad news for visitors to Beijing hoping to pick up some nice fake branded clothing this week: it's been hidden away. Stall holders at the city's famous Silk Market have put the items to one side, says the Sydney Morning Herald, because the city has been hosting the World Intellectual Property Convention. Next week, when the delegates have gone home, it should be fake business as usual.

• The best-reviewed hotel in the world, according to users of Expedia, is a boutique number in Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia, where rooms can be got for $150. Eat your heart out, Burj Al Arab.

It would seem to me that rational airlines would base their ticket prices on supply and demand. If it seems that the flight is going to be fully booked, they will put their prices up. If there is a risk of flying half empty, they will put their prices down. Whether this occurs 2 months or 2 weeks before departure depends on the market at the time. Should be a goldmine for actuaries.

Doesn't it matter what class you fly? Back in late April, I booked a trip to the UK for early August, flying Premium Economy with Virgin Atlantic (OK, slightly more than 2-3 months ahead of travel, but not much). Then BA came out with a fare sale in late June. Naturally Virgin matched on price (in fact, I don't know who jumped first). The result: business class seats that were barely ($100) more expensive than premium economy had been back in late April / early May.

It seems that August is a good time to fly if you have some flexibility, would normally fly premium economy and can spring for the extra $$s to take advantage of the fact that business class often has lots of space during August. What makes this even more surprising is that both airlines are having a fare sale to London during the Olympics. I booked my tickets back in late April anticipating that flights from the U.S. to London would be booked solid for the Olympics - apparently not!

What I have experienced, irrespective of Mac or PC use (I have a Mac at home, PC at work) is that if you start rechecking fares without scrubbing cookies and browsing history from your internet browser, the fare for the same trip on the same date with the same airline can rise by hundreds of dollars (someone else posted on this topic a few months ago) even during the same search process.